Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the environmental effect of increasing imports of utilized cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need throughout Europe that imports now represent over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there's no other way to prove these imports are sustainable.

Without any testing of what's coming in, specialists believe it is likewise ripe for fraud.

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Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be among the toughest challenges for governments all over the world.

They have actually motivated using biofuels as a crucial ways of suppressing carbon from cars and lorries.

Biofuels are typically a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon produced when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when widely used as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been commonly discredited since it encourages deforestation.

So for the last years approximately, using utilized cooking oil has actually expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being an essential part of biodiesel with an effective market emerging across Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there just isn't sufficient chip fat to go around.

According to a report from the project group Transport & Environment, external, majority of the UCO used in Europe is imported.

Their study suggests this is when it pertains to influence on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what individuals in these countries are replacing the UCO with, when it is exported.

In 2019, Malaysia exported 90 million litres of UCO to the UK and Ireland. Figures for their exports to other European nations aren't offered however the flow of UCO is likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three litres per head of utilized oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have less utilized cooking oil to use on the important things that they were formerly using it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil available.

"So indirectly, we're simply encouraging more logging in Southeast Asia."

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are merely watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is performed, some experts think scams is swarming.

The tip of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification schemes in place.

"It is widely known that the European Commission has taken relevant steps to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a new database being developed by the EU will make sure that trading, certification and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be registered.

"The combination of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability issues develop in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database concept, which was very first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming believed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and aviation wanting to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next decade.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and risks of utilizing 'fake' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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